Rod Smallwood has managed Iron Maiden for 47 years, and in an interview with the Chilean station Radio Futuro he was asked what the band do once the Run For Your Lives tour ends.
"If I told you that, I'd have to shoot you," he said. "We keep our plans strictly to ourselves. We let the fans know when it's definite. We don't like rumors."
That answer is the policy rather than a joke, and it is most of the reason the band's announcements have landed the way they have for four decades. Smallwood agreed to manage them with Steve Harris in 1979 and has run the creative side since, with his business partner Andy Taylor, whom he met at university in the late 1960s, handling everything else.
He was warmer about Nicko McBrain, who announced his retirement from the band in December 2024. "It's so sad his career was curtailed a bit by the stroke. But he's still very active," Smallwood said. "He's got his book coming out soon. He's doing a speaking tour of Europe, which he started last weekend. So he's in good shape."